Thursday, November 22, 2018

Our Thanksgiving was very low-key. I spent most of Wednesday doing a lot of prep work and preparing side dishes to make Thursday go easier. Our menu was turkey, ham, corn casserole, rice dressing, sweet potato casserole, bacon wrapped green bean bundles, cranberries, and dinner rolls. For dessert we had pecan pie, lemon pie, and a chocolate pie! I have to say, I do love my convertible double convection oven at times like this. I made way too much food for just the four of us, but at least I won't have to cook for a few days.

In some ways, it is nice not having to go anywhere. We do Thanksgiving however we want, when we want. No schedule, no one to impress. We eat when dinner is ready and there's no waiting on anyone else. We don't have to visit relatives because we HAVE to. No holiday drama. On the other hand, the guest chairs at our table are empty and it's hard to make things feel special because it's the four of us, just like any other day. It is what it is.

For the first time in many years, I'm not at all interested in Black Friday shopping. I've been hitting the online sales the past few years. It was so easy sitting up waiting for the sales to go live online!! There were so few things in the ads that appealed to me this year. Valerie and Veronica are too old for toys and don't need any more electronics. I actually can't think of any big ticket items to get them at all. I did grab a few small things online from Target this morning, but other than that, I won't be venturing out into the madness at all.

Clint worked a bit on our outside Christmas lights. The show is ready to go! We did a test run last night and have a few issues to chase down. My tree is up, but not decorated. I have a lot of inside decorations as well. We have a ridiculous amount of Christmas things and keep adding to them as the years go by. Hopefully once I can get the house decorated I'll find my holiday spirit. Plus, Holidailies 2018 is starting up soon.

Thursday, November 15, 2018

Thanksgiving is just a week away... I'm so not ready for the holidays y'all. Thanksgiving is early, so it just doesn't feel like it should be the holidays already! At least I've got my turkey and ham!! All the Black Friday deals are out and I have barely glanced at them. We NEED to get our lights up on the house for our Christmas show. I need to put my inside stuff up. Decorate the tree. I have no idea what to buy anyone for Christmas. And Santa... what do we do about Santa this year??? I thought for sure last year was the last, but Veronica was rambling on about Chippy the Elf coming just yesterday. Okkkay she still believes.... for now. It made me sad to think of no Santa this year, so we'll just wait and see how it goes. Valerie will soon be turning 14 also... wow, 14. Choir practices... Winter Formal.... Honor Band... Band rehearsals... Choir concert... Band Concert... birthday party.... December will be busy.

I'm definitely looking forward to next week off of school. I'm so tired. Mamma needs a break from getting up early and chauffeuring kids to and from school activities. A week of sleeping in sounds fabulous at this point.

Monday, November 05, 2018

This past weekend was Veronica's All-State Honor Choir concert!! We had to be in New Orleans Thursday - Saturday for rehearsals and the concert was Saturday afternoon. She worked so hard learning her music. They have to have all the music memorized before any of the rehearsals start. I put the recorded practice tracks on a CD and played them in the car for weeks, so we BOTH learned them pretty well just from that. She was nervous... but Veronica did great the whole weekend. I was able to sit in on the Saturday rehearsal and these kids sound so, SO good. It's amazing how 220 kids from all across the state of Louisiana learn their parts of the music, have one day of practice, and it all comes together so well.

I'm so proud of her... so glad she got to experience something so great!! I loved being in high school choir, and Veronica has many great years ahead of her.

All dressed up for the concert

On a side note... The original plan was for Veronica and I to go to NOLA on Thursday afternoon. Clint and Valerie would meet us on Friday and we'd all attend the concert on Saturday. Well, Valerie is Beta Club Treasurer and it so happened that Beta District Day was Saturday, and she also signed up to compete in the banner contest. I made arrangements for her to stay with a friend, and just Clint was going to meet us in NOLA Friday.

But... life had other plans....

Valerie started feeling bad Thursday night. Friday she was even worse... no school.... Type A FLU! Unbelievable. The flu already. Clint ended up staying home to tend to her instead of meeting us. Val had to miss the Beta event also. Val organized a couple of friends to design and make the banner and Val was all set to present it, then she had to hand it off to someone else.

Val's Beta banner made by her and friends. (The school mascot is a Gator) I thought it was great! But it didn't place at all though. Boo.

So, it ended up being just a mommy and Veronica choir weekend. Very thankful for Uber and Waitr as I didn't have to do a ton of driving alone around The City. Traffic and parking downtown can be a bit too much for me!!

Here's a couple songs from All-State Honor Choir concert:

"The Fox." (It's about a fox catching a goose for his dinner -- really!)

"Who Can Sail." Probably my favorite. It's a Finnish Folk song - so it's in Finnish, then in English.

Thursday, November 01, 2018

Halloween was pretty quiet. As I mentioned, both kids weren't all that interested in dressing up as anything elaborate this year. Sign of the times I suppose. That didn't stop Clint and I from having a little fun:

We have quite a few Trick-or-treaters around here. Throw in our light show and that makes for a crowd in front of our house all night long. As much work as it is, it makes it worth it to see how much the kids enjoy it. We got so many compliments and 'love your house' comments. Usually the music is broadcast via radio transmitter, but only on Halloween do we set up a sound system and have the music blasting.

Anyway, Valerie and Veronica decided they were old enough to ToT on their own. I followed them a little ways down the street to be sure, and then came back home to hand out candy with Clint. Surprisingly, the kids were back home in less than an hour. With a TON of candy of course. A little before 8:00 the streets were practically empty, so we picked up and shut off the final light show.

bing meta tag

About Me

I'm a SAHM of two daughters. We live way down South in Cajun Country. I started this blog so friends and family can keep up with what's going on. Also, I like to read back over past entries and relive the good, bad, and everything in between. It's good to remember.